SNAPSHOT() your data BETA

[JCadence (Jennifer Cadence (AppSheet Team))]

If you didn’t get a chance to read our recent Feature Friday, here’s an exciting new addition to formulas.

What it is: SNAPSHOT() is an addition to workflows that allows you to take static images of charts, graphs or custom maps and add them to either PDF attachments or emails sent from your application’s workflow. If you have an application that incorporates daily inspection reports of a worksite or you have large amounts of data displayed in a dashboard that you would like to send to your executive team automatically, this is a great expression to add.

Where does SNAPSHOT() live: This feature is an expression and can be added in the Behavior section of your AppSheet editor under either Reports or Workflows.

Important Notes

• This feature is part of the expressions capability of AppSheet and therefore part of your applications behavior. It leverages the LINKTOFORM() expression but requires the addition of SNAPSHOT() to the template formula.
• To add to your applications functionality, navigate in your app editor to Behavior > Reports or Workflows. From here, select or add the action that you would like to contain the SNAPSHOT() template. There are a few additional steps to take and we recommend reviewing the final steps of this process [in this this article on SNAPSHOT()](There are a few additional steps to take and we recommend reviewing the final steps of this process in our help center.
• If you encounter issues with this feature, a good way to troubleshoot is to test the SNAPSHOT() for a row or two in your table.

Try adding this feature to your app now and let us know how SNAPSHOT() works for you.

Happy app building!

[Pointer (Hasan Can)]

Is there a sample application, how do we use the formula? Thanks

[Zach_McNaughtan1 (Zach McNaughtan)]

Can I use linktofilteredview

[Rosemary_Black]

It doesn’t work for filtered views, and doesn’t wait for the background images to load for XY columns.

[Rosemary_Black]

@JCadence could you set the delay on the screenshot just a second longer? I think that would solve my immediate problems with the snapshot feature.

[JCadence (Jennifer Cadence (AppSheet Team))]

@Pointer I’ll work on getting a sample application for you in the next few days

[JCadence (Jennifer Cadence (AppSheet Team))]

@Rosemary_Black by “delay” are you referring to waiting until the background images have loaded for your XY columns? It could have to do with the number of rows being loaded, a smaller row grouping may load quicker.

[Rosemary_Black]

@JCadence Yes, any additional delay for the page to load before the screenshot is taken.

It can’t handle even 5 rows - 5 different images. Some load, some don’t. Somtimes the pins themselves don’t even have time to load. See below:

SNAPSHOT When I use the <<SNAPSHOT(LINKTOVIE...

Here’s one partially loaded:

Fully loaded - at the end of the report:

[JCadence (Jennifer Cadence (AppSheet Team))]

Thanks for the additional information @Rosemary_Black I’ll do a bit of digging to see if I can gather some information for you.

[Joshua_Aldrich]

Hi Rosemary,

I looked into what is happening with the map view not showing the image. I tested on smaller scale maps with fewer pins which may have obfuscated this problem. I have written up a fix for this issue and expect to deploy it tomorrow. I’ll let you know when it gets deployed so you can evaluate. The update will verify that calls to google for the mapping functionality are completed as well as setting a short timeout to ensure rendering is completed before taking the snapshot. Again I’ll let you know when this goes out. Thanks for the feedback!

-Josh

[Rosemary_Black]

Excellent, thank you.

[Grant_Stead]

Solid work!

[Joshua_Aldrich]

I just checked the deployment history. I confirmed that the change went out. I also started using larger maps and have confirmed it is consistently generating the maps without error. Please go ahead and generate your reports and let me know if you see any incomplete snapshots. I can fiddle a bit more with the delay if needed but all have worked out so far.

Josh

[Rosemary_Black]

Can I send you an email of my report and what I have going on?

snapshot of the overall image with multiple pins works, but then I have individual detail views of each pin (because if you give someone the overall image with all the pins that’s a good start, but it has no way of showing what each pin is). Those still work sporadically. Some load fine, some the background faded, some no background, some no background or pins.

edit - the full image with multiple pins isn’t working consistently either.

[Joshua_Aldrich]

Yes please, josh@appsheet.com. Also could you provide a copy of the template just to see if I notice anything there.

Thanks,
-Josh

[Neal_MF_Harper]

Hi! I’m getting repeating charts, looks like one chart for each row, am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance, very cool feature!
Neal

[LeventK (Levent Kulacoglu)]

@Neal_MF_Harper
You are using a <<Start:>><<End>> expression which will evaluate your SNAPSHOT expression for each row in your Last 13 months table.

[Neal_MF_Harper]

Derp. How painfully obvious, thanks Levent!!

[hcquadros (Hugo Quadros)]

From today I’m getting an error using snapshots. The chart doesn’t load. On the pdf I get blank boxes instead and when I click the box, it shows the error below.

Anybody else?

[Matteo_Menghetti (Mattéo Menghetti)]

I am getting the same error